5 min. read
Martial arts fans now have another addition to their 2024 viewing slate with Capelight’s latest digital and physical release, The Last Kumite. The film is directed and penned by Ross W. Clarkson, and co-written by Sean David Lowe who produced the film, and shepherded the film’s initial crowdfunding campaigns in its earlier development stages.
Coralling a bevy of nascent and veteran screen talents led by German action star Mathis Landwehr, The Last Kumite centers on Michael Rivers, a widower and seasoned tournament champion exiting the circuit to focus on his school, and raising his teen daughter, Bree (Kira Kortenbach) Seizing the opportunity while attending an afterparty in Michael’s honor, a man named Ron Hall (Matthias Hues) approaches Michael with a sereptitious “business opportunity”: A Kumite in Eastern Europe, and the chance to win a million dollars.
Nevermind the consequences of albeit cordially turning down the offer. For Michael, it’s only a matter of time until a message written in red on a mirror finds him jettisoning to the remote enclave overseas, and ushered into a castle where other selected fighters find themselves in the same boat, including Damon (Kurt McKinney) and Lea (Monia Moula).
The rub? Compete in the tournament and climb Hall’s seedy bracket leading up to his burly champion fighter, Dracko (Mike Derudder). Beat him, and the winner wins a million dollars, as well as the freedom and that of their captive loved ones. Lose? Well, that end of it is made clear when Hall’s henchmen dispatches two of the competitors for not getting in line.
With the kumite a week away and thinning options at their disposal, Michael, Damon and Lea come to terms and try to come up with a plan to survive. For Michael though, and with beating Dracko as his only goal to save his daughter, he manages to score an ally in Loren (Billy Blanks), a local who shares a dark past with Hall during his own travails as a fighter in Hall’s kumite.
There isn’t much in the way of a plot from this point on, as the The Last Kumite lets loose on the intended fanservice. Stan Bush and Paul Hertzog’s score is what fuels the movie for most of the action and training montage-filled journey, with sturdy performances by Landwehr, McKinney and Moula. Hues’ antagonistic Hall contributes his usual assortment of sinewy screen villany that isn’t without its share of charisma suited for fans familiar of his work.
Memorable character interludes include Mohammed Qissi who plays Hall’s head goon, and Abdel Qissi who takes on the role of the town’s lead detective and only law enforcement authority. The addition of Cynthia Rothrock adds another layer to the film’s depth and development tied to the film’s villains as her role, much like that of Blanks, comes with a score of her own to settle.
Much of the film’s runtime would need passing in order to forgive the film’s most egregious intro, which is that of Derudder’s Dracko. He makes his menacing intro in the first half of the film with nary purpose and nothing short of something out of a cartoon, staring down the room of fighters and blurting out his character’s first three words in cringeworthy, laughable fashion. That’s basically the extent of his role, as Dracko is pretty much a dick in every room he walks in. That includes one scene in which he barges into Michael’s room to try and intimidate him, with Hall’s armed henchman in toe. Beyond this, don’t expect anything close to the more effortless stylings of Bolo Yeung’s “Chong Li” or the like.
All that’s really left to deduce from that point on is the action, choreographed and coordinated by Mike Moeller. The fight scenes are brisk and serviceable to the needs of the action for much of the way, and even McKinney, long since his No Retreat, No Surrender heyday brings a little something sweet to the table. One of the film’s other promising standouts is Moula, who could do great as an actress in the years ahead when she’s not in her stunt trade. Burgeoning film star David Kurzhal makes the jump straight from his YouTube as the “Viking Samurai” to the screen for his debut as a fellow contestant who may – or may not – be in it for the money.
The story is hampered quite a bit by some of its delayed exposition and performances, and certain scripting choices which makes some of the film seem more redundant and unnecessary than it should, and the plot tends to be as paper thin as its villains. Invariably though, the energizing score, and levels of violence ranging from post-kick blood-spitting to one instance where a fighter eats another guy’s eyeball, should keep ardent genre fans enticed. It helps that Landwehr has long been a prospective name in German action cinema since Johannes Jaeger’s Kampfansage: Der Letzte Schuler.
Crowdfunding was ample enough for this film to garner the support it did, and audience reactions have been largely positive at event screenings. As far as quality check goes, the film passes muster and delivers on what it said it would. The only real question that remains after all said and done, is if gathering a line-up of tireless screenfighting fan faves to make a movie is enough. For what it’s worth, and depending on your tastes, the team behind The Last Kumite might have its answer.
